Before it becomes stale news, I wanted to note several fascinating, inspiring, “water-level” accounts of the recent Manhattan Island Marathon Swim. The 28.5-mile circumnavigation of Manhattan is one of the generally-accepted crowning achievements of open-water marathon swimming (along with the Catalina and English Channels), and is the only race among the three.

The third USMS Open-Water Championship of the season – this time, for 6K – was held in a man-made lake in Windsor, CO (near Fort Collins). It’s one of only two races on my schedule in which I’m truly “flying solo” – that is, not an excuse to take a semi-vacation with the wife (Charlotte, Noblesville, Madison), to see family (California, Oregon) or friends (Miami), or take a dip in my local lake (Big Shoulders).

So, though it was my first time visiting Colorado (excluding airports), I didn’t stick around to sightsee: I flew in Friday afternoon, raced the next morning, and flew back the Columbus the same evening in time for a late dinner and episode of ‘Mad Men.’…

Between May 29 and August 1 this summer, I have 6 races. Actually, 11 if you include events with multiple races – but the point is, I have to be ready to swim fast on 6 occasions in 9 weeks.

These races are, in many cases, quite physically grueling: a 6K this weekend (at 4800′ elevation) in Colorado, a 10K next month in Indiana, and a total of 11K over 5 races (also at elevation) in Oregon at the end of July. So, while I need to be “ready to swim fast” in all instances, I also can’t afford to moderate my training much, or I risk losing conditioning. If anything, my training volume in the past year (~15,000-25,000 yards/week) is actually insufficient to race a 10K (though it’s sufficient to finish a 10K).

In club/age-group swimming, we trained right through mid-season meets, tapering only in January (for short-course championships) and August (for long-course championships). The most we got mid-season (usually for a “travel” meet) was a couple days of below-average volume. During the high school dual meet season, we had meets almost every Friday between late February and early May.…

This was posted a few days ago on the Daily News of O.W.S. – it’s the finish of the Men’s 10K U.S. National Championship last weekend in Long Beach.

This is why these guys train so hard – to be at this level, you need not only endurance but also speed. After 9,500m at a pace most people can’t hold for 100m, it all comes down to a sprint. The dude nearest the camera (Chip Peterson) is using an 8-beat kick! Simply… awesome.

Steven Munatones’ detailed write-up (including the women’s race) is here. His write-up of the 5K is here.…

The 2nd USMS Open-Water Championship – 1.5 miles around Lake Del Valle, south of Livermore, CA – promised to be a competitive one, given all the stacked Masters teams in the Bay Area. And that it was.…

As Chris Anderson described in The Long Tail, the internet has made possible a previously unthinkable wealth of content for niche interests – e.g., Masters and open-water swimming.

Here are two great examples from the past week:

First, Rich Abrahams. The consensus “swimmer of the meet” at the recent Masters Nationals in Atlanta, Rich threw down a 49.4 100 Free and 22.1 50 Free. Fast times for anyone, but guess what? He’s 65 years old. In other words, not just fast, but almost-unbelievably fast.

How did Rich do it? Through several candid posts on the USMS forums and a video interview with Swimming World, you can gather hints. The most interesting nuggets, to my mind:

his focus in practice on lots of race-pace swimming

his approach to dryland training:

focus on overall, balanced strength rather than swim-specific strength

one long workout Sunday morning, one shorter workout Wednesday (providing several days recovery between each)

the importance of long-term consistency (i.e., over several decades)

his preference for swimming with 1-3 like-minded training partners, rather than with a team